


Painting In Shades of Red

by SeoulWings13



Series: LiT - Wyld/Jaewon Centric [5]
Category: Lost in Translation (Webcomic)
Genre: Brushes, Colors, Dongho - Freeform, Gen, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Lipstick & Lip Gloss, Listened to Borders while writing this, Painting, Pancakes, Red (Color), canvas, dongho likes pancakes, jaewon is red, matte colors, monochromatic, paint, red has a mind of it's own, rey why did you write this, this was pretty fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29213838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeoulWings13/pseuds/SeoulWings13
Summary: Wyld is red. Jaewon is pink. They're both the same.
Relationships: Ahn Jaewon | Wyld & Kang Dongho | D.Min
Series: LiT - Wyld/Jaewon Centric [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2167341
Kudos: 20





	Painting In Shades of Red

**Author's Note:**

> Whooo got this wip out after my lack of motivation. I'm so happy!
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always appreciated.

**_“Red goes with everything and red goes with nothing.”_ **

**\---------------------**

Jaewon hated the color red. He detested the harshness of it, and yet Wyld had become synonymous with the color. It was the color of brokenness, a shade so dark and tainted, he wished it would just disappear. His therapist had suggested taking up painting. It had been therapeutic for a while before he started spiraling downwards.

The paintings had started innocently enough. Jaewon's love for monochromatic painting had blossomed under careful care. It was simple and his painting of blues and yellows seemed to lighten the entire dorm. The walls were decorated with pictures of fields and flowers and the floors covered in newspaper.

The tubes of paint had been squeezed and covered in other colors from messy hands. All but one. The red tube of paint was pristine in its holder. Jaewon refused to touch it. Oranges and purples were bought, ready-made. Daehyun often asked Jaewon why there was no red in his paintings. Jaewon would only look at the maknae and pull on the ends of his hair.

"Hyung why don't you make your own purple? The red is right there."

"Daehyun-ah there are other colors better than simple red," Jaewon said the color like it was a dirty word.

Daehyun had wandered away wondering what was wrong with that color. Minsoo had further solidified Jaewon's hate of the color with red always representing the enemy. Red meant stopping, violence, and hate. Jaewon was so scared. 

He bought a book on colors and their meanings, trying to figure out what something good red could mean to him. 

Love.

Oh. Red could mean love. What was love? Was love relationships? Girlfriends and boyfriends? He sighed. Love wasn't an easy concept. Jaewon could say he loved his mom and his members, but did he?

Was he worthy of giving love to others? 

Did he deserve receiving love? 

The concept just made him hate the color even more. 

Jaewon hated both love and hate. Both were represented by the color red. Both were emotions he could do without. 

Squeezing out a fresh tube of blue paint, flowers immerged from beneath the tip of his brush, decorated with darker accents. He put on some music in the background, humming as the blues soothed him. 

Colors and their meanings were beautiful to him but the bright red still held the tainted meaning to him. 

It was the color of blood and girl's lipstick. It was the color that covered his neck in every doctored photo. It was the color that Wyld owned, the color of his hair. It was a color of lust and innate passion. It was a shade of pain and blood, a shade of darkness. 

Passion Jaewon couldn't stand any longer. 

The finished painting was laid out on his floor to dry, Dongho walking past and nodding at it. He too had noticed Jaewon's aversion to the color red but was having trouble distinguishing Jaewon from Wyld.

Wyld was a womanizer, an object of desire, a symbol of lust. Wyld was always covered in red. The red of lipsticks. Jaewon was softer, but not entirely innocent. To Dongho, Jaewon was pink. There was still a distinct sense of purity trying to calm down Wyld's reputation. Yet, Jaewon still carried the marks Wyld received.

He didn't know who Jaewon was. All he knew is who Wyld is. There was no matter who Jaewon wanted to be if he didn't make the effort. Dongho only had to see that Jaewon probably liked it as much as Wyld did. Maybe Jaewon was as red as Wyld. Maybe Jaewon and Wyld weren't so different in colors.

Yet, something about that bothered him. Jaewon was too earnest, too kind to be as dark as Wyld. 

Was he one to judge? D.Min was different from Dongho. Both were still shades of purple, but D.Min was certainly darker. He was made to be an icon for young girls and a model for young guys to follow. Dongho liked cats, Boba in particular. He liked lounging and being a homebody. Even Minsoo was different, though not as distinguishable.

Daehyun and Minsoo didn't have a line to draw between their personas. Bonus from sharing the same name.

Jaewon, no this was Wyld, walked into the dorms. Dongho could tell it was Wyld from the smearing red staining the white shirt and decorating Wyld's own lips. 

It filled Dongho with disgust, but what intrigued him more was the hurry in which Wyld moved to the bathroom. There the shirt was tossed in the trash and his face was washed. There Jaewon was back, oblivious to Dongho watching with intense interest. 

Jaewon was rubbing at his face and neck, crying. Jaewon didn't want to be Wyld anymore, nor did he want to ever feel the color of glaring red upon his skin again. Lipstick or tint, even clothing with the hint of the dreaded color. 

Passion.

Love. 

Hate.

Jaewon just wanted to be purple. According to his book, purple was a color of tiredness, calmness, and it was emotionless. Jaewon wondered what it would be to be numb like that, to be free like that. 

Dongho was purple to him. He was a little cold but calm, able to hold and handle himself. The only purple part of him was the sheer exhaustion that covered him. It made sense to Jaewon. Purple was made of Blue and Red after all.

Soft sobs could be heard from the bathroom. Sobs that made Dongho wonder if Jaewon really was as red as Wyld.

The article came out later that day, letters and decor in a blazing red. Jaewon didn't look at his phone the entire day, instead opting to dance for an extra set of hours. 

The blue painting was hung on his wall, decorating the black and white. Dongho walked in to admire it.

"Jaewon let's go to lunch." He said after looking at it for a little while.

"Oh? Sure Hyung!" Jaewon's smile was so big, Dongho couldn't help but chuckle.

"Where do you want to go?"

"Uhm anywhere is okay Hyung!"

"How do pancakes sound?"

"Sounds great."

"Let's go then."

"R-right now?"

"Yeah. Unless you have something else to do?"

"No that's okay. I just need a new shirt. I'll be right out."

"Jaewon-ah my car will be in front of the dorms."

Jaewon nodded and ran upstairs, leaving Dongho to go wait in the car. He had come down a while later, in a black and white outfit. The colors didn't suit him as well. As much as Jaewon seemed to hate it, red was part of who he was. 

This was how the two ended up in a small diner, eating their way through fluffy stacks of pancakes. Dongho watched Jaewon carefully order chocolate chips and whipped cream even though he knew Jaewon had been fond of strawberries. 

Red had always been Jaewon's color. 

Jaewon just hated it when it became Wyld's color. 

"Why the lack of red?"

Dongho's question caught Jaewon off guard. "I just don't like it."

"But why? You loved it before we debuted. You chose it for your hair."

Jaewon seemed to shrink as his har was brought up and pulled up his hood. "That was then. This was now."

"Enough for you to ignore the tube of red paint in your kit? Enough to avoid strawberries even though they're your favorite fruit?"

"Yeah."

"Is it because of lipstick?" Dongho leaned forward slightly, wiping cream off the younger's lip.

"Yeah."

"Elaborate, please? If I didn't know better, I'd think you loved all this attention."

"It's just a lot. There's a lot of pressure and it hurts."

"What hurts?" _Your ego?_ Dongho kept the last bit to himself.

"The CEO's expectation. The fact my reputation is trampled over misunderstandings."

"It's not a misunderstanding that you come home covered in lipstick."

Jaewon flinched. "It's more complicated than you'd think."

"I'm here and listening now." 

"Why are you so curious?"

"I want to help."

"Then Hyung, just accept the fact Wyld isn't me. I hate red because of what it means. It means Love and Lust and Hate and Passion. Love is always twisted, only wanting a relationship for the media or money."

"Love is kind, Jaewon."

"Not for me. Love is giving and giving without ever receiving. Love is forcing my body to be used for people who badmouth me behind my back. Nothing about that is kind, Hyung. I'm leaving. Thank you for the meal."

"Just know red is a part of you. It's beautiful once you find the good in it."

Jaewon stood and exited the cafe leaving Dongho confused, but seeing Jaewon more as a pale pink than a dark, crimson red.

Jaewon thought about his conversation, thinking how red was an inescapable part of him. Maybe he had to understand love, first. He knew he loved his mom, and he really did love his members. 

He wanted to give for them, and that was okay. It was out of his own free will.

For the first time, his brush touched red.

For the first time, a red and pink painting hung on his wall. 

For the first time, Jaewon and Wyld felt like the same person.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope yall enjoyed it! Love you all
> 
> ~  
> Rey


End file.
